Alternatively Disruptive Education
by Philip Glenister tomboy
Summary: When Gus Carmichael's mental health as part of his Asperger's Syndrome/Autism goes pear shaped, Continuing Education at Brock College is to blame. It's a glorified dumping ground for older pupils coming from Pupil Referral Units and/or have been excluded from mainstream secondary schools for behavioural or criminal record reasons. Can Mike get it banned from teaching academic SENs?
1. Chapter 1

Jacqueline Wilson The Dumping Ground:_ Alternatively Disruptive Education _

**This is a Jacqueline Wilson The Dumping Ground fanfiction based on my bad experiences in Continuing Education for three years at Brockenhurst College. When Mike Milligan notices Gus Carmichael going pear-shaped with his mental health as part of his Asperger's Syndrome/Autism, it is down to a college course that claims to continue education but instead is just a glorified dumping ground for some very troubled pupils who are from Pupil Referral Units and permanently excluded from mainstream secondary schools. The main form teacher Brett prefers to be down with the kids instead of focusing on important academic subjects like English, Maths and Information Technology with too much empathasis on personal and social skills; not a good mix if you're autistic like the TBR/DG character Gus Carmichael and I.**

* * *

The Brockenhurst College brochure and website describes Continuing Education as _This learning opportunity is designed to help students become more independent, gain qualifications and learn important life skills. It is a two or three year programme, depending on your abilities and level of attainment. All units aim to develop your personal, practical and social skills. _There was little mention of English, Mathematics and Information Technology on the details of Continuing Education as no-one ever honestly tells you that it's really a class department shaped holding pen for some very dangerous and troubled pupils who have come from Pupil Referral Units and/or excluded permanently from mainstream secondary schools. The programme is structured in: _Plan and participate in travel training, work with others, practical activities including working on a farm, independent living skills in our purpose built facility, sports _and _personal social development._

When Mike Milligan brought in Gus's EHCP (or draft assessment paperwork) to his interview to get a feel for Continuing Education's vibes, he could see it took place on times when their students were away from the Brockenhurst College grounds or other staff who'd have Continuing Education were taking them for lessons, so very heavily edited to try and pull the wool over unsuspecting parents eyes, to believe that it's really a good class until the disruptive elements teach vulnerable autistic students very awfully dreadful behaviour around the college grounds. Most teachers quiver or sit in dread whenever the words Continuing Education were uttered in the staff room of Foundation Studies. Brett does gloss over his answers whenever potential parents/guardians of new students ask questions on discipline and how group work is managed; he would rather be on the teenagers level by going on Avon Activity Centre residentials, day trips by splitting the classes into teams of four or five. London Science Museum in Kensington is the only decent one out of a unsatisfactory set. They were supposed to be focusing on students education, not planning big field trips on most academic years, though it wasn't known for the latter. Continuing Education tended to spend half or all day at Longdown Activity Farm near Southampton on Tuesdays and Fridays, not arriving back on site until near 12:30 or 3:30 pm bang on near lunch break or hometime.

* * *

"Hi, Mike Milligan and Gus Carmichael, welcome to Brockenhurst College's Continuing Education; I'm your form tutor Brett Nowell." being very informal in his manner wearing scruffy brown sandals and too casual clothes, leaving not a very good impression on Mike Milligan when he finds the teenagers come from living with alcoholic parents, in care and have been dumped in Brockenhurst College at Cont Ed (it's nickname) after being excluded from mainstream secondary schools or pupil referral unitshad to find placements at such short notice.

"Hello, I'm Gus Carmichael I like to practise the piano and play for a local orchestra." replied Gus in his formal tone of voice, he has curly jet black hair wearing a navy blue collared polo shirt, beige trousers and smartly polished black shoes.

"No, call me Brett or dude." said Brockenhurst College's Continuing Education form teacher who insists that he can manage highly academic SEN students and that all of the support is there, when they can't and it isn't (or Continuing Education just don't want to spend money on it). "We also have a summer school, so students can have a taster of our lessons and get to know their way around the college grounds."

The explanation for this was that "if you label teenage children, then they live up to that label" Gus has Asperger's Syndrome/Autism, the clue is in the name. His brain has developed slightly differently to that of others and there is nothing that can be done to change that fact.

A text gets sent anonymously to Mike Milligan by a nearly 62 year old mum warning him about Brockenhurst College's Continuing Education: _The consequences of their inability to be honest with me have been disastrous. My daughter endured a terrible time. She was bullied relentlessly and picked up some very bad habits and made M mask her Asperger's Syndrome/Autism dangerously to be something she wasn't in real life. Nothing I did or said made the slightest bit of difference. __The people responsible for all of this have walked away and left me to try to pick up the pieces... but there are some characters there in Continuing Education and it would worry me, please make sure yours is on specific courses to do with their specialist school subjects only. M had to cope with constant distractions in Continuing Education._

* * *

Gus starts the Continuing Education summer school, has lots of other students with severe behavioural issues and he has picked up lots of new tricks and bad language, however they are not very structured with a lot of emphasis on social and emotional development and practical teaching (almost daily). Mike Milligan gets a lot of daily phone calls, during the week Continuing Education actually start for real.

* * *

**A statement from a former foster parent reveals why Continuing Education at Brockenhurst College should no longer be allowed to enroll academic but vulnerable SEND students. Read the testimony on the next chapter to see...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: **A Continuing Education Teen Destroys his Foster Family

**Sarah Haywood is an ex foster parent who had one of the Brockenhurst College continuing education students as her placement, who destroyed her family to pieces and is now afraid to foster for the Hampshire local authority in case a child like her very difficult case happens again and can't afford to risk the two younger children that Sarah has of her very own for specific reasons, after a large age gap from her first now adult son. She e-mails Mike Milligan and May-Li Wong a statement on what really happens at Continuing Education at Brockenhurst College, plus why she's no longer fostering for the Hampshire County Council.**

* * *

_We have been fostering for five years and in that time have looked after 10 children from aged 8 months to 18 years, during that time we have had two younger children of our own, after our 27 year old son._

_There have been ups and downs, we have had a false allegation also which we dealt with, although was very traumatic at the time, we have moved on three young people/children to forever families or independent living schemes, three back to birth families and have really enjoyed every moment._

_The last placement was very very difficult, to the point of him 'coming at us' with a knife that Lee had taken from downstairs and hid under his pillow, repeatedly using physical violence on my husband and adult son, verbal abuse to name a few._

_Lee had been excluded from his last school, was statemented for his behaviour and was placed in a pupil referral unit awaiting a college placement. We looked after him for a total of 18 months (the longest placement he had maintained) and we only moved him on because our eldest son who visits us after work was extremely frightened of him despite being 6 ft 5 tall, fears us his Mum and Dad being beaten in the morning (this happened a few times). Robert noticed his youngest brother Ashley was wetting the bed, unable to sleep in his own room for fear of being knifed, what kind of Social Services put a dangerous teenager leaving a hard working 27 year old man to deal with his little brother's Ashley's sleeping problems and toileting regression? Just goes to show Hampshire Social Services are very corrupt when it comes to the care of looked after children and young people! _

_We TRIED OUR VERY VERY BEST to help our foster son with limited help from Social Services, they would just come and give us a break and take him to KFC every month; inevitably the placement broke down in july this year very suddenly due to our youngest son Ashley being hysterical over his imminent return from a 'respite break'. My eldest Robert had to ring the police who had to arrest Lee for domestic abuse (as foster child is over 10, the age of criminal responsibility) and we couldn't afford for our younger two to be deemed at risk._

_Hampshire Social Services then decided that because we moved Lee on so quickly (i.e we asked if he could stay with his respite carer) and didnt see that the issues with our youngest son warranted his moving on, they held a strategy meeting to see if what we did constituted 'neglect'. After the meeting they came round (after making us wait a month) and told us of all the things that had been raised - things I wasn't even aware of or even thought relevant._

_For example, a transport driver had said I wasn't friendly when returning children, but couldn't tell me which driver or when in the five years it had happened,_  
_so basically a lot of sweeping statements were made about us as if they were building a case against us but they 'decided' that they would like us to continue fostering after a small assessment was done on us (basically because we had two children placed since our last review)._

_We decided to resign, mainly because of the way Hampshire County Council had treated us but they convinced us to do the assesment. _

* * *

_A month later in October, we get a half hour visit from our social worker saying that we will be going to panel after christmas with a view to change from short term to short break care in the new year, we agreed to this; then on Friday, he arrives with the report for panel for December!_

_The report made me and my eldest Robert cry..._

_It basically told a short story of our 5 year fostering journey, stating what we had done, about the allegation and what the transport drivers had said and the strategy meeting etc etc, it also made some horrible remarks about us having 'limited understanding' of a looked after child, stated true incidents but left out important details, so it looked quite alarming on paper, but the full story was not included._

_We fought tooth and nail to have the young lad 'assessed' we treated Lee as our own and did our best to calm his behaviour, I think we knew him better than social services, we lived with him, looked after him when he was sick, gave him hugs despite half hour earlier; Lee would hit us, social worker then concluded that we should be de-registered due to us moving on our last placement quickly and the discussions of the strategy meeting. They have done a complete about turn._

_I feel as though they refused our resignation the other month because they wanted to do it themselves in their own way, control the situation etc._  
_ the 'issues' they raised never warranted them removing children at the time, but now we can't carry on._  
_I feel so used and in particular very upset that we will not be able to offer respite care._

_In short they have made me feel like the scum of the earth in this report and the cheeky sods wanted me to sign it, but didn't want to wait around for me to read it._

_So I have made points throughout the report, attached a covering letter and hand delivered it on Friday telling them we are resigning and will not sign their report and we wish no further contact from the council, he was going to come back tomorrow to get the signed report from us, no idea if he is going to come despite us telling him or anyone else not to._

_Sorry for long e-mail, I haven't even written this under my full name because I can imagine people will think there is no smoke without fire and all that, now I'm rambling but I feel upset, angry, confused, embarrassed and most of all hurt._

_I also feel that this reflects on me as a parent of two decades experience and I'm losing confidence with my younger children thanks to this incident involving Hampshire County Council with foster teen Lee X._

* * *

_ I have experienced this when trying to get foster children assessed._

_In any case I have probably blew that chance now as I have handed the report back with discussion telling them not to contact me, I don't trust them at all after all this and to be honest I am more concerned that if I pursue it they may start looking into the care I give my own two younger children (not that it has been suggested)._

_They seem to close ranks as well, when I have been told that someone has said something about me, I have responded but my response has not been documented or ralayed back to the person who made the comment, this part is driving me mad so nothing every gets solved from my side._

* * *

_After a sibling placement broke down back in May ( there were major problems with the eldest child's behaviour and also he was abusing his younger siblings )_

_Everything was fine support wise while we had the children and " coping " , but as soon as we gave notice on the eldest the social worker and her manager undertook a campaign of destroying our fostering reputation , by cutting off all forms of communication with us and the remaining two siblings in placement , then writing a nasty report full of complete lies, discriminating against me and my husband, saying that we gave "low warmth , and high critisism" towards the child (nothing could be further from the truth i can assure you) and operating a "regime." (all the measures we had in place were in fact agreed by the social worker as necessary to safeguard the children) The social worker took this report to the funding panel to apply for an agency placement for all 3 children (and it just so happened that one of the panel members son was a foster carer for an agency and ended up looking after this child ) The new carers have been told a load of lies about us and are very hostile and don't want any information at all about the children (the social worker has apparently given it to them). The new carer and the social worker have also ******* us off and lied to the children's mother (who to no surprise wants her children to be looked after by the new carer) _

_the social worker then decided to circulate this report to all the professionals in the case, we were the last to get it . We were furious as it was completely innacurate and full of lies! So we put in a complaint. So far it has got nowhere, each time we think it is getting sorted the team manager stops it and back tracks, refuses to answer phone calls etc, so it has now gone on to stage two complaint where it is being investigated by her manager (I have no confidence that this will resolve the issue or that it will be investigated objectively)_

_The other two siblings in placement we feel strongly should stay put and so do all the other professionals in the case including the children's psychotherapist from C.A.M.H.S , as well as the children themselves. The spcial worker agreed for an independant asessment to be done by Banardos which recommended the younger two stay with us , however this is being completely ignored and they are moving two very settled and attached children to a situation where they are at risk of abuse and the placement is likely to break down (the children have been with us for three years)_

_Several other foster carers are having the same problem as us; i.e Not listened to, not valued or respected (after all we are the ones who know the kids the best ) We spend more time with the children in a day than the social workers do in an entire year._

_ Unfortunately we have no employment rights as we are not covered under an employment contract ( any foster carer agreements we have are not worth the paper they are written on), and there is no independant watch dog body to monitor the decisions that the social workers make. We are at the point of telling the authority to stick it where the sun doesn't shine , but that is exactly what they want. We have been through six months of hell. My only hope is that we can finally work through this . I have promised myself that if the grief continues or they stop us from fostering I will take it as far as I need to to clear our names and fight injustice, and that will include legal action, going to the media, council standards commitee, local m.p and childrens minister if I have to._

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**Can Mike Milligan be her cyber advisor in shining e-mail notification? Awww, poor Sarah she's really having a rough time with Hampshire County Council and badly considered placements of troubled teens where it's too little, too late.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: **Mike Advises Sarah the Foster Parent.

**Mike Milligan sends Sarah H some sage advice by e-mail as he's been working in Social Services for nearly 35 years and has seen a lot of lovely families torn apart from the local authority, when under their Fostering and Looked After Children team.**

* * *

_Sarah,_

_You weren't fostering for the same local authority that I have a major ongoing issue with, by any chance were you? I am sorry that they have made you feel this way, but do understand how soul destroying it can be, I'm amazed at some of the descriptions of me, in particular. Our situation is slightly different to yours but we lost our care package because someone didn't do their job properly._

_If I could offer any advice it would be to put in a formal complaint about the way you have been treated. You should be able to do this on your LA's website via the contact us section. We have an advocate, and he has been a sane voice in a lot of the **** we're going through with them, so I would suggest you find an advocate too. They can support you in taking the LA on, will help you with any meetings, letter etc. Out of interest did you keep a copy of the report, and your response to it? You may find that actually they have broken employment laws and so there is more than one issue going on here, might be worth a chat with a solicitor or CAB too._

_You can ask for access to your file, and you are well within your rights to challenge anything written or said about you or your family, and have your point of view added to the file. Under no circumstances should you be made to feel that you cannot challenge what they say. Realistically if they had any concerns about the care of your own younger children then they should never have allowed you to foster; so please, I know easier said than done, don't worry about them wanting to look at this. It's not something that's ever been raised here either_

_Please do not be frightened to challenge them._

_Wishing you lots of luck_

_Mike Milligan_

* * *

**12:30 PM to Sarah H**

_Believe me you haven't blown your chance I told them where they could shove their services and that I wasn't interested in working with them or anything they had to offer and then complained!_

_They have to take your complaint on board and deal with it, there are clear time frames that they have to work too as well. It gives you the opportunity to be able to clear your name, put your point across and challenge any inaccuracies or inconsistencies. I would be wanting to challenge the point of view that I was 'neglectful', if that is what they think or have said about you. That would to be honest make me really angry - I'm chaotic and disorganised which made me spit._

_I just think it's really bad that the impact all this was having on your youngest son Ashley, wasn't seen as being "important"._

_You haven't signed the report so therefore they cannot say you agreed with it, which is a favourite trick - "not signed" has been used a lot during our complaint! When ours all started falling apart I emailed just about everyone from the local councillor to the MP (usually gets their attention!) if you have to go to the Director too._

_You will probably need to get this sorted though if you want to foster again for either a different LA or an agency and I don't know if there is any other way forward other than challenging them. Hope the foster carer worker can come up with some answers for you._

_Sarah I do hope you manage to find your way through this , does your authority have a local fostering association? They may be able to give you advice and support . I believe you 100% of what you are saying , unfortunately you are dealing with a corrupt body of people who lie and close ranks when there is a problem and have little respect for foster carers and until attitudes change it is very difficult to change this , my advice would be to seek as much support where you can and sometimes you have to consider your own needs above fostering and move on . Time will tell , When this child moves on and each new carer has problems , you will have the satisfaction of saying " i told you so , but you didn't listen"_


End file.
